Corrupted Hearts Beat Alike
by Khalko
Summary: The two of them had already lived for some time together and tonight it was Doflamingo's birthday. He waited for Crocodile to come home. After all, what is a special day without your lover? One-shot, modern world AU


**/ A/N: Some time ago I asked ECA for writing ideas and she came up with something along the lines of Crocodile and Doflamingo in modern setting living together. I got some writing done and later noticed that it's going to be Doflamingo's birthday soon. If you've read Crocodiles everywhere, this is going to the same category, kind of: silly business…**

**I orde- *cough* friendly asked from ECA for a picture of Doflamingo and she painted him watering his flower (called flamingo flower!) :D She has account in deviantart with name Hyljemmo and the picture's name is Flamingo's flower~**

**She also made the cover image for the story :) ****/****/**

Doflamingo was gradually starting to lose his interest on the poker game going on in the large tv. Beside the match boring him more with every passing second, the couch he was currently laying on was starting to feel way too comfortable. He was not going to fall asleep, no. The tall man shifted his arms from underneath the pink, feathery blanket but otherwise let the cloth lay on top of his shoulders. He bemused himself for a while by mimicking a pendulum with his feet, casting a shadow to the left, then to the right on the table. This provided him with only a few minutes worth of entertainment as the numbers glowing in the tv's bright screen informed him that it was now 4 minutes past midnight.

Doflamingo turned his chair to the right so he could face the vast scenery of the city offered by a large window. Despite the hour the area outside was still alive with some traffic among the skyscrapers. The man found himself studying the view. Having a distance of 23 stores to the street level, the cars below seemed like nothing more than sluggish lights moving forward.

By the time he had stirred up twice from a blurry slumber in his chair, Doflamingo decided the lighting in the room was way too low to keep him awake. He was on his way to turn the switch when he heard a scratch of the keys at the door. All the weariness faded away when he saw Crocodile's face. The same couldn't be said of the latter.

"I'm home," the visibly sleepy raven-haired greeted. He removed his shoes and neatly placed them near the door.

Doflamingo noticed his partner placing something alongside his coat to the entry table.

"Are you sick?" Crocodile asked, referring to the massive pink blanket the other was wearing as means to warm himself up. He hadn't really grown attached to the cloth that had one day appeared on the blond's shoulders. After all the fruitless requests to burn the damn thing he had learned to live with it. There was always the possibility the idiot would grow bored with his heap of feathers. Unfortunately the cloth had been given by none other but the blond's closest colleagues so Crocodile had submitted himself to the fact that the changes of it disappearing were close to zero.

One afternoon he had caught the other sweeping fallen feathers on the dining room's floor and dumping them in the bin. Smiling in triumph, the older man had hummed just loud enough for the other to hear him from the living room:

"A few more years and that hideous coat is history."

Doflamingo had halted for a while still holding the dustpan and the broom in his hands. Crocodile's smirk lasted until the response came somewhere behind him, voice all filled with the usual wide grin:

"Don't worry, I'd just get another one."

* * *

><p>The response that followed Crocodile's question led him back to the present:<p>

"Just a cold," Doflamingo belittled as he approached the other and dived his hand underneath the cravat Crocodile was wearing and shifted it smoothly in his hold.

"Must have been an important meeting. You rarely wear this one."

Crocodile confirmed the blond's deductions with an utterance.

"I brought you something," there was a hint of fondness in Crocodile's voice when he said that.

"Oh, how very unusual, coming from you," Doflamingo circled to Crocodile's back and wrapped his arms over him crossing his fingers on his chest.

"What is it?" He inquired playfully.

"Open it," Crocodile turned his head slightly to give a look at the man smiling behind him and rolled his eyes.

"Tell me," Doflamingo teased the other.

"I need a quick shower," Crocodile stated and lightly touched the other's palm with his right hand.

Doflamingo took the clue and removed his hands. If there was something he had learned of the other, was that at moments like these it was better to give him a moment to breath after dealing all day with the customers.

"Don't take too long," the taller man lowered his posture to plant his head momentarily right next to Crocodile's. The older man needed his solitary, yes. But Doflamingo had made it clear from the very beginning that there was only that much of separation he could take. And the limit was closing in.

While Crocodile closed the bathroom door behind him, Doflamingo louched and bent over to the hallway's table. He lifted up the expensive, dark grey coat briefly to snatch the oh-so-mysterious little box, the size only somewhat larger than a match box. Weighing the item on his hand gave him no further clues as to what the sturdy container held inside. With the box in his hand, the tall man waddled back to the living room, this time slumping to the three seater sofa. Resting his feet to the opposite side's arm chair and his head to the other with his left hand as a makeshift cushion Doflamingo spread his right hand's fingers over the lid and slowly lifted it. In halfway though, he changed his mind. The present could wait until Crocodile was back to face the living.

The blond man rose and made his way to the piano on the wide corridor. He set both the box and his sunglasses to rest on top of the instrument. Soon the distant sound of water splashing down to the floor was joined by calm tunes, nearly slack even.

By the time Crocodile in his night clothes walked over to Doflamingo, the latter was so absorded in the music that he didn't notice the other's presence. Instead of waking his attention, the raven-haired moved a chair closer and took a good seat.

To think the man in front of him was known on the streets as a pianist capable of filling the concert halls whether he was performing in the states or in the Europe. His face alone pleasing the people donating notable sums to the fund raising of cancer cure development. From time to time, Doflamingo would start his shows by igniting the crowd into ecstatic applauds by updating them with the ongoing of the research.

Ha, what a scam! Had they known the money they were handing was going straight not into any kind of cancer fighting but on the improvement of the chemical weapons manufactured by Doflamingo's subordinates. The government was aware and ignoring the lesser scenes Doflamingo had going on in the underworld but even their eyes were unintentionally blind to Doflamingo's work overseas.

Crocodile was not one drop better though. Not far away from the countries Doflamingo was currently dealing his merchandise into, the older man had led a scheme of his own. Acting as the unstable country's hero on the surface when in fact he was preparing the country to rip apart to a state they'd desperately call for someone to come and take over them. Just one step and he'd have achieved his goal. In the end however, all his hard work only resulted with him getting caught and sent to jail. It had been pure luck that he got out from the facility that was one of the world's most heavily-guarded. If he had been careful before, nowadays he was practically invisible. But incapable, no, not at all. He had merely changed the branch he operated in. He still had men loyal to his money right where had fled from to act as his hands and his eyes. They took care of setting off droughts that swept over the farming lands except the areas he owned.

Crocodile rose from his seat letting the chair audibly scratch the floor to get the other's attention:

"You'll miss the news."

Doflamingo didn't turn his back until finishing with a pair of notes and grabbing the two items waiting on the piano with him to the living room, following on the older man's lead. The said man turned on the tv right in time when the stock ratings popped up on the screen. One of the red numbers made a vein twitch on Doflamingo's forehead:

"Shit!"

Crocodile had long ago gotten used to the sight of Doflamingo in his furious state and was more like bored than terrified when the taller man louched with heavy steps to the phone and exchanged some words. Apparently Violet had fucked up something real good. When Doflamingo returned to the couch, Crocodile inquired how bad the situation was. The younger one was still tensed up and rested his jaw to his knuckles.

"Sugar and Trebol will take care of it."

A thought crossed Crocodile's mind:

_Has she betrayed them_?

He was not unfamiliar to treason himself as the absence of his left hand proved. It was inevitable with his level of greed that Doflamingo too would get himself trapped. The man was manipulating countless amounts of people, numbers high enough to make him lose track and make a mistake. The older man could only hope it wouldn't be fatal enough to get him behind the bars. After all, he was rather fond of Doflamingo's piano playing. Among other things.

Sighing, Crocodile rose and went to the fridge. After taking a lime he closed the door but then re-opened it and took another one and made his way to the bartender table in the living room. The raven-haired added the rest of the ingredients to accompany lime mush and sugar in the two glasses he had retrieved from the cabinets.

The caipiroshka Crocodile handed to Doflamingo as he sat back down didn't take the man's thoughts completely away from the unfortunate events but was enough to make at least his tension melt away.

"I'm gonna need another one," Doflamingo laughed after pouring down the drink in one go down his throat.

"You know where the ingredients are," Crocodile stated.

"You want one too?"

Crocodile shrugged: "Why not."

"Why not indeed."

As Doflamingo disappeared from the view in to the kitchen, Crocodile stared at the box on the table. He could barely tear his gaze away from it in time before his partner brought them the drinks.

"Open your present already. I want to get to sleep," the older man demanded.

But the other was not in the mood for taking orders and leaned closer until Crocodile could feel his breath on his neck:

"I want other things,"

Crocodile raised a brow but couldn't stop the smirk forming on his face:

"Greedy."

The raven-haired took a hold underneath Doflamingo's jaw but didn't have to guide the head higher a second longer before the other did so himself. A brief exchange of looks was all they needed to set the intimate kiss to a start. Now this was what Doflamingo had stayed up for so long. Crocodile brought his fingers to Doflamingo's side of the face, trailing gently over his skin. After a while he drew back from the contact, causing Doflamingo to moan in mild protest.

"Another time," the older man concluded.

"Tomorrow?" Doflamingo pressed on.

"I'm not promising anything," Crocodile warned.

The pout on Doflamingo's face was enough to melt the man to admitting to his will. It was Doflamingo's special day, after all.

"Fine, you…" The rest of the sentence sank in a sigh.

Doflamingo hummed in satisfaction, and now when he remembered that Crocodile still had one present in store for him, took the box from the table and opened it.

He hadn't expected a golden, wide ring to be inside. He was moved even until he saw the embedded pink gems. That little detail in the jewelry made Doflamingo absolutely unable to maintain the loud laughter now erupting from him. He imagined the scorn Crocodile had gone through when buying the thing, no doubt having Doflamingo's favorite cloth in mind.

"Thoughtful. Very thoughtful, Croco-man," Doflamingo smiled in a mix of tease and bliss after collecting himself together, fiddling with the ring between his thumb and fingers. Crocodile narrowed his eyes from seeing how Doflamingo was handling the valuable jewelry and mumbled:

"Put the damn ring on you-"

He wasn't able to finish when Doflamingo secured the ring inside his closed fist and leapt towards Crocodile, stealing a passionate kiss from his husband.

**/A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading this! :P/**


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